Lyrics for I'm Shipping Up To Boston as interpreted by freehat17

I'm Shipping Up To Boston Lyrics
I'm sailor peg
And I've lost my leg
A-climbing up the topsails
I've lost my leg

I'm shipping up to Boston
Shipping up to Boston
Shipping up to Boston
To find my wooden leg

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  • 31 Comments
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JuncoPartner
05-16-2006

Rated 0 
I wish I were a pirate...

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inte
08-12-2006

Rated 0 
I am a pirate....
Cannonball Willy is my name ;D
And I love the song.

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thepatient666
10-07-2006

Rated 0 
This song is excellent.

Its also used in The Departed.

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So_Help_Me_Emo
10-18-2006

Rated 0 
Heh, I heard it in The Departed.

This song is AWESOME.

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frenzy
11-30-2006

Rated 0 
yarrr! where's the scurvy!

if any song is gonna bring pirates it's this song...

[Frenzy approved]

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ajtherocker
12-24-2006

Rated 0 
Haha, I love this song. Obviously no hidden meanings here.

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J Villian
01-15-2007

Rated 0 
What are you guys talking about? This song is about a pirate trying to find his wooden leg so he can do pirate-ical activities like drinking mead, rapeing and pillaging villages, drinking more mead, and then more rapeing and pilliaging.

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joshdknoll
02-07-2007

Rated +1 
QUESTION: What is the similarity of Dropkick Murphy's song "Shipping up to Boston", Butthole Surfers' "Pepper", and Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta"?

ANSWER: They all talk about losing a leg. Two of them talk about a pole. I'm puzzled.

Lost my leg? I believe this is a symbolic way of telling the world something far different. This I gather from the fact that Harvey Danger is NOT an amputee. He still has his legs, even though he hinted that he had lost them in his song. So what does that mean? It is like something from a Snoop Dogg song. It only has meaning to the small group who knows what it means. Everyone else thinks because the songs don't make sense on first glance (such as Beck's "Loser") they include nothing more than a bunch of gibberish that sounds cool put together. I disagree.

It is my opinion that "losing a leg" means that you cannot run anymore. Run from what? The law. These songs are talking about people who may have gotten sucked into the nasty underworld of the informant institution (narcs?). They lost their legs symbolically. Interestingly, "Shipping up to Boston" was played during the movie "The Departed" which shows a web of informants of all types. I believe they chose that song for a reason. It has nothing to do with pirates.

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2 Replies
cjhasfallen22
02-10-2007

Rated 0 
i love this song when i heard it in the departed i went right home and downloaded it.

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quickey
02-11-2007

Rated 0 
i believe its just a song...it was used in the departed not because the web of informants but because it was based in boston. Dropkick is from the area and stay very close to their irish roots with their music, whereas boston has a large irish community like the one picutred in the departed. the background music on this song is probably the most irish sounding music they have in all their songs...besides maybe the bagpiped version of amazing grace

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quickey
02-11-2007

Rated 0 
also...many of dropkicks songs are taken from old irish songs...so this could very well be an old song about an irish sailor who lost his leg and is on his way to boston...haha

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Hectron
02-28-2007

Rated 0 
this song was written by woody guthrie, i dont beleive he's irish

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hotch
03-31-2007

Rated 0 
i donīt know where from ireland they are from, but as they sing about their irish roots, iīm still sure that this song has some background. the largest mass of emigrations from Ireland occurred between the 17th and 19th centuries, especially to the area around boston. maybe their ancestors did so too?! nevertheless, there was an english army officer called Arthur Aston (17th century) who was beaten to death by the English in the siege of Drogheda (in the north of dublin) with his own wooden leg, which the soldiers thought hid gold coins.
maybe that this event or the time afterwards till the famine caused their emigration?!
cheers

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deathbeforedishonor
05-21-2007

Rated 0 
I think either this song has no meaning at all and is about pirates or sailors or what not or it has a deeper meaning. Ok so we've established that Boston has a big irish immigrant population. Do you think that maybe this has something to do with why the guy is "shipping up to boston" seeing as this song has irishy background music. I agree with joshdknoll that he's "lost his leg" and can't run anymore. Also note that the music video doesn't have any pirates or amputees in it. It shows an irish-american gang in Boston. The fact that he's "shipping up to Boston to find his wooden leg" maybe is symbolic for he's going to Boston for the same reason many immigrants went to America, for the better jobs, economy and whatnot. I think the band put their meaning of the song into the video. I mean why would the band make the song about pirates but put a gang in the video. Makes sense that its about some guy going to Boston perhaps to join a gang or whatnot. Maybe the fact that the sailor lost his leg or he could be a pirate according to some people shows that hes not that reputable of a guy hence he would join a gang in Boston. South Boston was known for its Irish-American gangs. And people are saying i don't believe this is irish. Listen to the song. What do you hear in the background? Sounds Irish to me. These are my ideas about the song. Believe what you want but I for one definately do not think its about pirates.

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thatisgodhooray
05-21-2007

Rated +1 
i don't think the song is about pirates either. like deathbeforedishonor said, there is nothing about pirates in the video, and I think the wooden leg is more of a symbol than an actual pegleg. I think the leg is a symbol for stability in life, and that he's a sailor in life who has lost his "leg," meaning his footing in high society, "the topsails." The wooden leg is a symbol for replacement, of finding new stability, which he hopes to do in Boston.

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Subhana
08-22-2007

Rated 0 
oh i love.

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benjamin-cold fan
09-17-2007

Rated 0 
It sounds a little different in the movie. It sounds better in the movie IMO.

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cartlidge
10-14-2007

Rated 0 
i first heard this in the departed (awesome film) - and the songs suits it very well - brilliant stuff

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Portugee
11-27-2007

Rated 0 
that movie fuckin rules... love this song

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paddydthatswhat
12-07-2007

Rated 0 
joshdknoll- you overanalyse chill out

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rileycat
12-31-2007

Rated 0 
yeah, only heard of this song cuz it's the buffalo sabres power play song. it totally gets me psyched up when i listen to it cuz i think of my amazing hockey team. i never really analyzed the lyrics all that carefully but i've read the previous posts and can see the connection made to immigration/starting over in boston.

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MihoNinja
02-02-2008

Rated 0 
THis is a good song, but i played it in english class on the teachers cd player, and all the kids got scared... retards

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dhawk
03-15-2008

Rated 0 
Maybe it's about a pirate, maybe it's deeper, either way, IT ROCKS!

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bookishfreak
03-18-2008

Rated 0 
Best...into...ever.

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Mithrawn
04-09-2008

Rated 0 
IT ROCKS


had to be said, just experienced it live in stuttgart, germany

:D

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